Does the steady sheet-anchor have a role to play in an IPL side?

On flat tracks, the big-hitters can bat around someone like Cheteshwar Pujara, who will hold one end up. On tough pitches, and during tricky chases, an organised technique is as valuable as the ability to hit boundaries on demand.

No

Pujara's unbeaten 38-ball 40 in Punjab's huge chase against Rajasthan nearly cost his team the match. Run-a-ball scores in the 30s and 40s do more damage than good in a 20-over game.

Yes, you do need anchors in any form of cricket. The guy who does the dirty work of keeping one end open and wicket-free. Pujara can do that. Its just an IPL. Give him the chances, and his game will blossom. And anyway when KXIP are doing so well, why not give him the chance? He has the likes of Sehwag, Maxwell, Miller, Bailey, etc batting around him. Pujara can anchor the innings, and play around these guys. I would play him for more games, now that Punjab are doing very well. Maybe at a crucial stage of the tournament, Pujara might actually turn up with a real big innings at a T20'ish strike rate that wins his team the game at a very crunch situation.

April 22, 2014, 4:04 GMT

Ashwin

Pujara's knock against RR was the perfect foil for players like Maxwell and Miller to express themselves. NOthing more was needed at that point in the game. A lot of the criticism was unwarranted. Pujara needs to be played in all the games to stabilize a largely volatile batting line up. However, it is important that Pujara understands that he does not have to go hard at the ball. During the powerplay, a touch game is more than sufficient to get through. He needs to look no further than Dravid, Kallis or Mahela who use the touch game to perfection in the shortest format.

May 7, 2014, 8:54 GMT

Arun

Yes. But, players like Pujara with all kind of textbook shots mastered, just need to improvise a bit more to increase strike rate. When on a partnership with a partner striking at 200, he can just keep rotating strike and stay at S/R 100. In a tough pitch were wickets overtake number of boundaries, players like Pujara, Kallis or Dravid will win the match.
Pujara can learn from Dwayne Smith's story of how a good coach like Robin Singh transformed the player and talent. These players just need someone to mould them to suit the format of T20. Playing some upper-cuts, Marillier Scoops and reverse sweeps will make them more dangerous than big-hitters. Without the practice of unorthodox shots even AB would've been out of this format.

April 24, 2014, 11:21 GMT

Steve

The key to the anchor role is to get off strike! Average 2 balls an over as Pujara did and it works perfectly, although by all accounts he wasn't playing that way! Get up to 3 balls an over, then a run a ball is only good in bowler friendly conditions, where perhaps the technically sound anchor should take more of the bowling. The only problem with always playing the anchor comes when someone like Miller doesn't get the time he likes to play himself in. However, if he gets little time, Maxwell must have succeeded, or Sewag, in which case I don't think the run rate will be too shabby!

April 23, 2014, 5:52 GMT

Nitin

Without a solid foundation, a building will collapse. Players like Dravid and Pujara are very much reqd for others to play naturally.

April 23, 2014, 4:29 GMT

Darshan

Pujara can fit in any format of the game. Sachin Tendulkar also had almost similar strike which Pujara has. Then Why so much of fuss. And the biggest crime is that you are judging on the basis of 3 game (infact 2 games). HE looked very good in Punjab's 1st match of this IPL.

One more thing I want to tell. If you have seen Suresh Raina in his early career he was not the man who can hit sixes. But now see he is in top of the list of hitting sixes. This happened only due to his exposure in shorter format of the game. Play him (Pujara) for the full tournament you will see good results.

April 22, 2014, 15:30 GMT

Dummy4

Ahmed uetian, what is the ODI career strike rate of Dravid, 71.24.... did u know that Ganguly had a strike rate of 73.. and to name a few more.. Chanderpaul 70, Kallis 72, Inzamam 74, Ajay jadeja 69.. K srikanth 71, Azharuddin 74, Imran khan 70, Javed miandad 67.. and mind you, these are all seasoned ODI players who have never ever been blamed for their slow strike rates.. then why only Dravid...

Strike rate is more psychological.. if we see that a player can hit big sixes, we assume that he has a very high strike rate.. but we often forget the reason for those star players to hit those big boundaries is because there is someone else standing with them holding the fort and giving them enough strike to do the damage.. and that my friend is called TEAMWORK.. i can write pages about the good things/records that Dravid holds and his value to the Indian team.. but that is not required .. Rahul Dravid is a Legend...

April 22, 2014, 14:08 GMT

Dummy4

Dravid was a complete ODI failure with only 14 man of the Match awards in 340 matches.

Compare it to Sachin's 65 MOMs in 460

Even Gangully had won MOM every 12th game whereas Dravid won every 24 game.

People will argue that he was a middle order than Kallis & Ponting won MOM every 11 game. Accept the fact guys

Dravid was a total ODI failure & a liability that India bore for so long. .........His low S/R so often forced Sachin & Gangully to slog & get out & in the slow rearguard process of Dravid India only lost.
Once India got rid of Dravid jinx in 2008 India won VB series AUS then WC 2011 & Champions trophy & many more..............They brought back Dravid in 2011 Natwest & 2009 Champions trophy & his 80 runs of 120 balls chasing 300 sums up his carieer as we lost both badly

April 22, 2014, 13:24 GMT

Dummy4

Its not about the number of runs he scored OR how slowly he scored them. Its about the way he played the innings. He tried very hard to hit the ball but was unable to do so. He almost lost the match for Kings X1. He is a good player but there are better T20 players like Vohra and Gurkeerat in Kings X1's ranks.

April 22, 2014, 13:13 GMT

Chandra

There is nothing wrong in holding one end, when other end batsman is going 'ding, dong.' What was glaringly evident in case of Pujara was, he was not able to hit 'on demand.' A good batsman is one, who can adapt to any situation. As someone mentioned here, when Maxwell and Miller were hitting, he could rotate the strike, but when they fail, is he able to accelerate the scoring? No way. You can't score 15-16 runs a over by taking 1s and 2s. You HAVE to use long handle and hit the 4s and 6s.
I am afraid in his desperation to adapt to T20, he might lose what he has - calm, composed approach required for the test matches. Someone should tell him - Find yourself and be yourself.

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